Tag: M100

Sometimes cars and people just go together. Cars can mimic someones personality and mannerisms, both good and bad. So when it comes to matching up the legendary Mercedes-Benz 600, a car known as one of the most technologically advanced and complex cars ever, to someone who isn’t an entertainer or a dictator, who wants to own one of these? Enter Dr. Forrest Bird. You’ve probably never heard of that name before, just as I haven’t, but he is responsible for pioneering mechanical ventilators for people with acute and chronic heart and lung afflictions. In layman’s terms, he made the iron lung obsolete and helped millions of people over the years. Not only that, he was a certified pilot by the age of 16, served in WWII and assisted in the Korean and Vietnam wars, took his technology company public on the NASDAQ, opened up a museum, earned a M.D., Ph.D., Sc.D., D.S., started a charter school and just to top it all off, was awarded medals by not one, but two acting United States Presidents. Suddenly the problems of owning a 600 don’t seem so large.

A few months ago I checked a Mercedes-Benz 600 literally fit for a king. Today we have another 600 Pullman which doesn’t look to be outfitted for any royalty and/or dictator, but you probably need to be as rich as one to afford it. This 1969 for sale in Germany has gone through a total frame-off restoration and from the looks of it, could pass as a brand new car.

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I wish I knew more about this specific car as I love diving into the histories of them. Almost every 600 ownership has a story behind it that ranges from wealthy industrialist to killed three million people and everywhere in between.…

Last week I checked out at a 1972 Mercedes-Benz 600 that looked to be cared for by a wealthy stable owner in north Alabama. Today, we have another W100 to examine, but this one has quite a bit more history to sort through. This 1970 600 for sale in Portland, Oregon isn’t the normal standard wheelbase sedan you are used to seeing but rather it’s the rare Pullman version, which is one of 423 ever produced. Of course, those who ordered these cars usually weren’t your normal private citizens. So who was the original owner of this rolling symbol of power?

Ordered new by King Idris of Libya the same year he was overthrown by Muammar Gaddafi
Award winning restoration (fully documented)
All mechanicals are new or rebuilt
35,000 km’s (300 km since restoration)
Factory 040G black with bamboo leather
Complete set of factory spares kits and tool pouch
Price: $395,000 firm

The owner of this awesome 600 was King Idris of Libya who according to the build sheet, didn’t have possession of the car for too long. This Pullman was built in July of 1969 but unfortunately Idris was deposed a few months later in a coup d’etat by army officers led by a guy you might have heard of named Muammar Gaddafi. I’ve tracked down a photo of Idris getting out of the car attached below and even more amazingly, the Associated Press actually has video footage of Idris in Turkey on September 2nd, 1969 with the car that can be viewed here. That same day is when Libyan Army officers took control of the country.…

Earlier this week I looked at a 1972 280SE 4.5 for an asking price of around $25,000. I explained that for my money, I’m probably skipping the 4.5 and finding a decent 300SEL 6.3. Well lo and behold, a 1969 6.3 in Colorado just happened to pop up for sale bid on eBay. It’s no means as nice as the 280SE 4.5, but this monster W109 is a little more special than the standard 6.3.

This is a carefully restored car head-to-toe, but it’s also a 47 year-old car. Runs great and I kept this car up hoping to keep it for a lifetime—but the mechanics are very specialized on a car like this, so please make sure that you know what you’re getting into.

For sale is a 1969 Mercedes that I bought this car in 2008 and restored, hoping to keep it forever. Have moved the family from Denver to San Francisco—my loss is your gain. This is a beautiful car, having had a full strip-down & repaint, all new leather interior, carpet and killer custom installation of a stereo and woofer system—installed in a way that doesn’t cut into the door panels or take away from the car’s originality.

Mechanically, this car has been almost entirely redone. The engine went out almost immediately after I bought it, so I found another one that was represented as being freshly rebuilt and then stored for some time. It’s not a “matching” engine and chassis but it’s a legitimate 6.3 motor that’s in fantastic shape. We couldn’t verify how many miles but it was represented as being basically new, and it has been very strong.

The Mercedes-Benz 600 is one of the few cars that I’d love to own but at the same time be absolutely terrified of actually owning it. There is no “faking” ownership of a 600. You need to be totally unfazed about the possibility of spending $8,000 for a minor service at any time. A set of factory brake pads alone will run you over $1,000, although most owners just use the thinner W109 6.3 pads as “affordable” alternatives. If a 600 needs chassis rubber replacement, it’s not out the question for it to be over $20,000 in parts alone. Suddenly, you become envious of Ferrari 348 and 355 owners that only spend $10,000 on engine-out services. So when a 600 comes up for sale like this one in Alabama, I dream of scooping this thing up, but then think maybe spending $12,000 to make sure a 600 can sit in my garage without the body touching the ground isn’t the best use of money.

This 1972 is car number 2109 out of the 2677 W100’s ever built and it is the last year for the 600 in the US making it quite rare. The Horizon Blue paint isn’t a color I see too often and the grey interior looks to be in fine shape outside of the random clothes hanger in the rear seats. Being a southern car with a little over 66,000 miles, I don’t see any obvious signs of wear outside of the fading wood that the seller mentions in the description.…

You might of heard the story of the Colorado man who had a little affinity for Mercedes-Benz 300SEL 6.3s. (You can read the story here if not.) I understand where this man was coming from because if you really like something, go get four more of them. In his case, the M100 powered W109 just happened to do it for him and I don’t blame him one bit. Now that all five of these 6.3s have been saved and rejuvenated, one of them is up for adoption. Unfortunately, though, the adoption fee is quite steep.

Every time I see a car that is usually expensive, selling for a price that is inexplicably inexpensive, the gears in my head start turning. Could I buy this one on the cheap, fix it up and perhaps not lose money on it? Better yet – could I buy it, not do a thing, let it sit and probably not lose money on it? Thank goodness I physically can’t fit another vehicle in my garages and driveway because when I see cars like today’s, those damn gears start moving.

The W109 300SEL 6.3 has quickly become a collector car that everyone in the Mercedes circles are rushing to snag up. Prices have been going up at an alarming rate thanks to folks like Jay Leno proclaiming his love for it. I understand where he’s coming from because the 6.3, in my opinion, is one of the finest sedans Mercedes has ever made. It’s also generally considered one of the first “super sedans” – the prototype for not only later AMG models, but cars like the M5. Sticking the M100 V8 into the handsome W109 body and building it to a standard of above average durability and reliability made this car a winner the day it left the factory. The only problem was all the greatness is that it costs a lot of money upfront and even more to maintain at a reasonable level. This is where some solid math skills and judging your mechanical ability come into play when deciding whether to take the plunge on a project like this 1969 6.3 up for bid in Eastern, Pennsylvania.

There is a reason why Jay Leno calls the W109 6.3 his favorite Mercedes-Benz. It’s a classic Mercedes design both inside and out then finished off with the M100 6.3 liter V8 that still holds it own with modern cars. It’s what a Mercedes-Benz should be. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new super AMG cars that have 650 horsepower and can drive themselves down the road, but you can get that from any brand now. In 1969, this was the car if you wanted a European super sedan. Not to mention you paid for it too at over $14,000, which was only a few thousand less than a Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow. But the Silver Shadow didn’t compare to the 6.3 in terms of power, build quality and reliability. That’s why this car still has a huge following and even higher demand to this day. So let’s check out this 1969 for sale in Massachusetts.

The 450SEL 6.9 was the top of the range, high performance version of the W116 S-class, produced between 1975 and 1981. To make it, Mercedes took an ordinary W116 and shoehorned the largest V8 into its engine bay that they could find: a mammoth 6.9 liter unit making 250 hp and 360 ft-lb of torque in US spec. They then added a sophisticated hydropneumatic self-levelling suspension system that gave these cars a dual personality. On ordinary roads they had a magic carpet-like ride that would soak up bumps in a manner entirely befitting a W116, while on the track they would handle far more nimbly and capably than their size would have led you to believe. The result was an early luxury super sedan; a 70s incarnation of today’s souped up AMG S-classes. But unlike their modern counterparts, on the outside the 6.9s didn’t look any different to the rest of the W116 lineup. Distinguished only by a discreet “6.9” badge on the trunk lid, the understated menace of these cars meant they quickly found favor among the sorts of people who wanted to go very fast and had lots of money, but didn’t always want you to know just how much money they had. Driven by Hollywood moguls, gangsters and foreign dictators alike, these cars were expensive, fast and technologically advanced.

Jumping forward to today, these cars have rather languished on the classic car market. You can still find tired examples on Craigslist costing only a few thousand dollars, often resting on their emergency bump stops as a result of failed suspension, with faded paint and sad interiors. Lately however, nice 6.9s appear to be climbing in value, with more and more nice condition examples coming to market with large price tags attached. And that leads me to today’s car.…

(lights lift slowly over a sole figure on stage, the band strikes up the first notes to the familiar tune Jailhouse Rock. The singer breaks into verse…)

“Seller threw an auction up on eBay’s site
He was hopin’ that the listing got his price just right
He thought that the famous owner would take bidding far
‘Cause that giant Mercedes-Benz was Elvis’ car

Let’s bid, everybody let’s bid
Anyone who remembers who Elvis was
Will want to get in his old cars…”

I was going to make a concerted effort to write this entire post without referencing either a Twinkie or the signature catch phrase “Thank you, thank you very much”, but I’ve just failed. Look, I’m not here to give you a history lesson on Elvis or his importance. I’m not here to recount the leather jump-suited Vegas years, whether I like fat old Elvis or young vibrant Elvis, or even debate if he stole music from African Americans. I’m not going to give you a history lesson on the Mercedes-Benz 600, either. But let’s consider a few things about this car. The 600 was expensive. Really, really expensive. Arguably, in the late 1960s it was the nicest car that money could buy, and since it took a lot of money to buy, some really famous people owned them. Only about 2,600 were made, mostly in short wheel base variants like the one that Elvis bought. We learn he put $5,500 down and yet still had 36 monthly payments of $344. That equates to $17,844 in 1969; a figure which doesn’t seem particularly outrageous today and even inflation corrected it’s “only” about $116,000. But it was far more expensive than your average car, and it took near royalty to get into the 600. You needed to be someone like Elizabeth Taylor, John Lennon, or…well, Elvis to buy one.…

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